Move comes in response to an investigation into anti-competitive practices in the Chinese shipbuilding industry, completed just before the Biden administration left office.
The Trump administration late last week proposed a docking fee at U.S. ports for Chinese commercial ships as the centerpiece of a plan to counter China’s dominance in the shipbuilding industry.
The move springs from an investigation into decades of anti-competitive practices in the Chinese shipbuilding, maritime and logistics industries that was completed by the Biden administration just days before President Trump took office.
The investigation itself was spurred by a petition filed in March 2024 by the United Steelworkers and four other American labor unions – endorsed by the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) – that argued Chinese efforts to dominate these sectors have effectively choked out other nations’ ability to compete in this space.
That includes the U.S., which was once the world’s leading shipbuilder. At its peak in the 1970s, American shipyards build more than 70 commercial ships per year. After federal support for the industry was halted in the 1980s, production fell off; it now produces roughly five oceangoing commercial ships per year, while China has more than 1,700 ships on its orderbooks annually. The inability of the U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry to compete has national security implications because of the overlap in supply chains and production it shares with military shipbuilding.
“Investing in our domestic commercial fleet and in manufacturing more broadly would help to shore up our economic and national security. To do this, we must first respond to China’s policies,” said AAM President Scott Paul last June before a hearing of the House of Representatives’ China Select Committee. “The largest obstacles to shipbuilding in the United States are the unfair trade practices of China. While no nation should be faulted for seeking to develop maritime capabilities, Beijing’s ambitions go well beyond that.”
The docking fee is not the only remedy suggested by the Trump administration in response to the investigation, reports Bloomberg. “The administration is also proposing steadily escalating restrictions on maritime transport of all U.S. goods. Initially at least 1% of American products exported by maritime vessels would have to be carried on vessels that are both US-flagged and -operated. The requirements would steadily rise, with the threshold climbing to 15% after seven years and eventually encompassing requirements the ships be built in the U.S. too.”
It’s unclear where these proposed fees would go. Will they support the training necessary to build up a pool of highly trained shipyard workers? Will companies in the shipbuilding supply chain be able to tap it so they can expand production capacity? It’s going to take a lot more shipyards and workers to put more U.S.-flagged and -operated boats in the water.
This proposal, however, a good first step, and we’re glad to see it’s been made. We’ll be watching as the administration’s proposal works its way through a comment period and a public hearing.
And it’s also worth noting that AAM is supportive of legislative proposals to improve American shipbuilding capacity, namely: the SHIPS for America Act put forth in December 2024 by Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) and Trent Kelly (R-Miss.). That legislation aims to revitalize the U.S. maritime industry by establishing national oversight and consistent funding for the U.S. shipyard industrial base.